Latest on Fri, 06:13 am
No, thank you.
.
During the euphoria I seem to have said that Europe could do with a politician like Barack Obama. On second thought – and after reading this cover story in one of our weeklies – I realize this is, apart from being nonsensical, also a serious error of judgment.
If he really would be our President elect, we could brace for an overkill of change. He would target some of the gems of our society . Yes, he could.
Of course he would abolish that charming relic of our feudal times, the Kingdom. He is convinced follower of the republican system. So goodbye to our gorgeous Princess Maxima. No more Queen’s day. And no longer our national squads, teams, sportsmen and sportswomen would wear the outstanding traditional orange shirts in international competitions.
President Barack Obama
Barack Obama elected as President of United States. So indeed at the end of the day finally common sense won. Or like Colson said…intellectual won over some populism 
Unlike Kerry in 2004 whom was unable to win those big states despite of a growing popular vote. Obama was able to win convincingly with 349 votes and beat McCain. For popular votes Obama secured 52% of the votes (it is still a scarry fact that there’s 47% US Voters believing that Palin is a good choice for VP USA hoh)
US Elections: intellectualism beats populism.
In this respect the US of A is still the one and only superpower: all the world is watching todays elections closely.
Barack Obama is likely to be the winner. And if this happens to be tomorrow’s result, not only the majority of the Americans but the majority of the world will be happy.
Some time ago an intermittent but excellent blogger – Dennis Matanda – wrote that Obama might stumble about one of the two worst allegations someone running for an public office may be confronted with: that of being elitist ( the other one is being racist).
VP Jusuf Kalla
The Vice President of the Republik Indonesia in a speech diagnosed the current financial crisis:
“One of the causes of the current crisis is the capitalist system,” he said. “Therefore we should develop a sharia economic system.”
Ah, he may be right about capitalism. So, is Indonesia going to abolish it? Does this speech mean the beginning of the end of free market economy in the country? No more privatization, no more ever growing distance between the have and the haves not. Does it mean abolishment of interest? Perhaps his ‘sharia’ solution stands for an economic and financial system based on fairness and solidarity. Not unlike the theory and practice of Rhineland economies, such as the former German “Sozial Wirtschaft”. Close to the ideals of old fashioned social democrats.
But he did not elaborate further. Well, that’s a pity. So he keeps us in the dark about what he really had in mind. Actually a viable alternative system is a long shot. I’m afraid the best way now is muddling through. And hoping the economists and politicians will do what they should have done long ago – improving the system step by step.
On second thought maybe Vice President’s words didn’t mean a lot. Perhaps he only wanted to please his (pious?) Padang audience by using the word sharia.